Hope & Truth Ministry
Be hope, be love, live with truth.
For the wondering, the doubting, the hurting, and the hopeful. For people without a congregation, and for people who have found theirs but want another voice on the road. You are welcome here.
From the lectionary
Recent reflections
Sermons and reflections in keeping with the Revised Common Lectionary. New writing arrives most weeks.
August 15, 2026
Changing Minds - Matthew 15 - Proper 15A
As the Iowa State Fair opens, this sermon reads the Canaanite woman's plea (Matthew 15:10-28) alongside Isaiah 56:1-8 and Psalm 67, hearing in her words “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table” a faith that dismantles ethnic, religious, and gender barriers. Tony argues that faith is not a private badge of blessing or an exclusive club but something actualized in caring for others — because God's “house of prayer for all peoples” is for all. The gospel is not for one nation or group but for everyone who calls upon the Lord, including: the outsider and all whom the world would push aside.
August 1, 2026
Blessing Our Meal - Matthew 14 - Proper 13A
Celebrating the Eucharist, this sermon takes the feeding of the many thousand (Matthew 14:13-21) alongside Jacob's wrestling in Genesis 32:22-31 and Psalm 145, finding in Jesus's compassion a pattern for every table. Tony notes that Jesus does not ask whether there is enough but asks the disciples to bring what they have — a few loaves and fish that when blessed and broken, become abundance — the Holy Eucharist and of the community meals served by UBFM every week. Against the loneliness of judgment, scarcity, and hoarding, the Eucharist joins compassion, welcome, giving thanks, faith, and breaking bread together, whether the table is family or chosen family.
July 24, 2026
Heaven is Doing - Matthew 13 - Proper 12A
Given the week of RAGBRAI, this sermon reads the parables of Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 — the mustard seed, the yeast, the hidden treasure, the pearl, and the dragnet — alongside Romans 8:26-39 and Psalm 119:129-136, using the community of a week-long bike ride as a picture of the kingdom. Tony resists the impulse to use the net as a tool for sorting the saved from the lost, insisting instead that the net pulls up everyone: all are selected, all are called to God's purpose, and heaven is less a place in the clouds than an active, caring, collecting way of life — heaven is doing. With Paul's assurance that "if God is for us, who is against us," the call is to leave judgment to God, use our gifts for one another, and belong to a community that includes the great and the small, the queer, the questioning, and the addict finding their way.